see also

Asked specifically about the study’s conclusion that climate change would cripple the US economically, he declared, “I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it.”

The report — the Fourth National Climate Assessment — was released the day after Thanksgiving by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

It painted a dire scenario, contending that the country would lose billions by the end of the century unless action is taken now.

“With continued growth in emissions at historic rates, annual losses in some economic sectors are projected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century — more than the current gross domestic product of many US states,” the report stated.

“Without substantial and sustained global mitigation and regional adaptation efforts, climate change is expected to cause growing losses to American infrastructure and property and impede the rate of economic growth over this century.”

“You’re going to have to have China and Japan and all of Asia and all these other countries, you know, it [the report] addresses our country. Right now, we’re at the cleanest we’ve ever been and that’s very important to me,” he said.

“But if we’re clean, but every other place on earth is dirty, that’s not so good,” he added. “So I want clean air, I want clean water, very important.”

The report was compiled by 13 federal agencies and more than 300 leading climate scientists.

Trump has long been a climate-change skeptic. He tweeted in 2012 that the “concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.”